Saving the Survivors

We all know that hundreds of rhino were poached last year but I’m not sure how many people know that 1 in 5 poached rhino actually survives. That doesn’t mean that they are able to recover quickly and go back to their ordinary lives. No, it just means that they live a bit longer and without proper care they will die anyway.

That’s the facts. We can’t deny them but what we can do is help save these survivors. A few weeks ago there was a talk held by PPS and Profmed, there they explained what Saving the Survivors team has done to help save injured rhinos.

One such thing they did was buying software that can interpret CT scans but not for humans – rather for the rhinos. The used the knowledge  that the rhinos could only be on one side for 20 minutes or else they would get pins and needles/lose the blood supply to their back legs, to make sure the rhinos survived the operation with minimum side effects.

When the surgery was completed the Rhino’s receive a skin graft on her face to cover the area where her horn had been. The veterinarians soon realized they needed to find a way to enhance the method of skin grafting and sought input from a plastic surgeon. Recent developments now also include covering the skin graft with a metal plate to improve the chance of the wound recovery.

A Photograph of Thandi after her skin graft from (http://savingthesurvivors.co.za/save-the-survivors/)